Europeanizing Ukrainian Law

Ten renowned European lawyers began to familiarize in detail fifty Ukrainian professors of law from Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, and Donetsk universities with the fundamentals of law in the European Union, reports Liudmyla RIABOKON, The Day. This action is part of a TACIS project, Legal Studies in Ukraine, scheduled for three years. In due time Ukrainian professors together with their European counterparts will hold training for Verkhovna Rada workers, state officials from ministries, and lawyers from both state and private sectors, who by test results will obtain certificates on specialization in European law. This three years’ work will only be a start to lay the basis for creating an infrastructure including specialist practitioners and professors, providing educational programs and systems for full time and extension courses. Experts state that to bring Ukraine closer to the European legal field, from 2,000 to 4,000 new legal acts will be needed.

Answering The Day’s question on the differences between the European legal standards and current Ukrainian ones, head of the project, Professor of the Brussels Free University Thierry Bourgoini said, “In recent decades the development of the Ukrainian legal system was influenced by the planned economy, thus today it is more public than private law. The European Union’s position is priority of private law based on market relations and including elements of public law aimed at protecting consumers’ rights. In my opinion, the legal process in Ukraine is underdeveloped; it lacks legal culture. To have legislation compatible with the EU’s, it is not enough to simply translate its directives into Ukrainian. It is important to understand the EU legal concept and investigate in what way it can be used in Ukraine’s situation. All this requires some time.” Oleksandr Vyshniakov, assistant professor at the Odesa National Law Academy, believes the major difference between Soviet and European law is the prohibitive principle, meaning that under the Soviets you could do only what you were allowed to, while according to the European law you can do anything that is not prohibited.